Overview

The Relationship Field in Layer allows you to create powerful, dynamic connections between items across categories.

This new unified field replaces and extends the functionality of Auto Lookups, Related Elements, and Spatial Relationships, bringing them all together into a single, intuitive tool.

In this article, we’ll walk through the three main types of relationships—Manual, Automatic, and Spatial—and show how to configure and use each one effectively.

Creating a Relationship Field

To create a Relationship Field:

1. Open any project and navigate to a category.

2. Click Edit Fields → Add Field.

3. Under the Relationships section, select Relationship.

4. Choose one of the three available relationship types:

Manual Relationships

What They Are

Manual relationships let you manually connect items between categories.

For example, linking a Product to its Vendor from your Company Directory.

Example Setup

1. Create a new Relationship field and name it Vendor.

2. Choose the category to relate to (e.g., Company Directory).

3. Configure the following options:

4. Select which fields you want to display (e.g., Email, Phone Number, Website).

How It Works

Once created, the Relationship field appears in your items’ detail views.

Users can:

• Link existing vendors or create new ones.

• Edit visible fields at any time to show or hide columns like Website or Address.

• Navigate to the related record to make edits directly.

📘 Tip: You can always adjust which columns appear by clicking Edit Visible Fields in the table view.

Tracking Quantities in Manual Relationships

You can also track quantities of related items within manual relationships—useful for room types, equipment lists, or FF&E schedules.

Example Setup

Let’s use a Room Types category as an example.

1. Add a new manual Relationship field called Equipment & Furnishings.

2. Link it to your Products category.

3. Set the Selection Mode to Multiple.

4. Enable Track Quantities and Sync Item Quantities (to synchronize with the reverse relationship in Products).

5. Choose visible fields such as Image and Unit Cost.

How It Works

In each room type:

• Link relevant products (e.g., chairs, tables, podiums).

• Enter quantities for each (e.g., 10 training tables, 20 chairs).

When you open a product’s record, you’ll see the reverse link showing:

“Classroom → 21 Chairs”

This represents the bidirectional relationship between Room Types and Products.

If you update the quantity in one category, it automatically syncs with the other.

📘 Tip: Quantities are great for use cases like equipment schedules, furniture inventories, or asset tracking.

Automatic Relationships

What They Are

Automatic relationships dynamically link items based on matching criteria—similar to the old Auto Lookup field.

These links update automatically as data changes, keeping your records synced.

Example Setup

Imagine you have a Products category and a Furniture category imported from Revit.

You want to automatically show which Revit furniture elements correspond to each product.

1. Create a new Relationship field named Model Furniture.

2. Choose Automatic as the relationship type.

3. Select the category to match from (Furniture).

4. Define your matching criteria:

5. Choose which properties to display, such as:

How It Works

Layer automatically connects each product to its Revit furniture instances.

The related data displays in a table, and the relationships remain live—no manual linking required.

You can:

• View the matching criteria anytime by clicking View Relationship Details.

• Edit visible columns the same way as manual relationships.

• Apply the same matching rules across all items in the category.

📘 Tip: Automatic relationships cannot be manually edited—they update automatically based on the defined match conditions.

Spatial Relationships

What They Are

Spatial relationships connect model elements based on their physical location—for example, linking furniture to the rooms they occupy.

Example Setup

To display all furniture inside each room:

1. Go to your Rooms category (a model category).

2. Add a new Relationship field called Related Furniture.

3. Choose Spatial as the type.

4. Select the Furniture category.

5. Optionally, add filters and choose visible fields like Level or Phase Created In.

How It Works

Each room now lists all related furniture items automatically, based on spatial containment.

For example:

“Room 108 – Instruction” contains 48 furniture items, displayed in a structured table.

📘 Note: Spatial relationships are only available for Revit-linked model categories.

Unified Relationship Field Benefits

The new Relationship Field simplifies and unifies related data management in Layer:

You can now pull any property from a related record into your category fields:

• Example: Create a new field in Products that pulls the Level from the Model Furniture relationship.

1. Add a new field.

2. Choose Relationship Lookup.

3. Select the source relationship (e.g., Model Furniture).

4. Choose the property (Level) to display.

That’s it—Layer automatically displays the value from the related data.

Summary

The Relationship Field is a cornerstone of Layer’s data model—allowing you to:

• Build connected datasets across categories.

• Automate relationships based on parameters or spatial data.

• Manage quantities and bidirectional links seamlessly.

By unifying all relationship types into one flexible field, Layer makes it easier than ever to model real-world data connections—without complex configuration.